Our option was either to go eat somewhere or me cooking...what are the odds of me choosing the second option. I woke up this morning and started planning a menu in my head. I thought back on what are the typical dishes that we usually order at the restaurant and keeping my brother in mind since he is still on the no meat diet. This is going to be a long post since there were 7 food items featured in tonight's menu.
Tonight's menu includes the following:
- Peking Ribs (Suon Kinh Do): This is one of my all time favorites when going out to eat growing up and till this day.
- Black Pepper Beef
- Chinese Lobster Stir Fry
- Steamed Tilapia
- Walnut Shrimp
- Pan Seared Scallop with an Asian Citrus reduction
- Bok Choy with Shiitake Mushroom
To many this may sound like alot of food, but I portioned everything so we would have just enough to eat.
Here are the before pics:
Peking Ribs (Suon Kinh Do):
These are fried pork spareribs cut into bite size tossed in a peking sauce. Best thing to do is ask your butcher to help you with this process. I had a slab of St. Louis Ribs cut crosswise in 3 sections. Since it is pork, season your pork and boil it half way through. If you were to straight fry these, it will probably burn before it cooks all the way. After you take it out the water, toss it with some tapioca flour and then drop it in some oil. Once they are crispy, toss it with your peking sauce. (I forgot what I had used to make the sauce). To think, I grew up only getting to eat this once in a while and it is the most simple item to make.
Black Pepper Beef:
This dish is typically served on a hot cast iron plate at the restaurants. Since I do not have one, I had to make do. This is another favorite dish of mine. The best thing to do at the restaurant is to toss the sauce and onion with you jasmine rice. This is my interpretation of the dish. I lightly seasoned some skirt steak and set that aside. This dish is best cooked and served with plenty of onion. Slice up an onion and garlic and saute it. Once it is cooked down, place it on a plate. Now with your seasoned pan, quickly brown the skirt steak then set that aside again. Deglaze the pan with some broth (I used chicken) and plenty of pepper and toss back in the onion and beef. Hit it with a cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce. Let everything simmer to soak in all the flavors. A couple minutes before, throw in long slices of green onion.
Chinese Lobster:
Now this was always a fun dish at the restaurants. It is bite sized pieces of lobster with a delicious seasoning. What I did with this dish was, sauteed some onion, garlic, green onion and ginger until it is fragrant. Toss in your lobster pieces that is dusted tapioca starch to cook it. For the sauce, I kind of made something up along the way. I made a sauce consisted of bean cured, oyster sauce, mirin, and fish sauce. When the lobster is half way cooked, hit it with the sauce and let it finish it off so the lobster takes in all the flavors of the sauce.
Steamed Tilapia:
Typically this dish is served as a whole fish at the restaurants. Since I did not have access to whole tilapia, I used the fillets that my Dad had bought in bulk. This was a simple yet flavorful dish. I used a lime, fish sauce, sesame oil, mirin and fresh ginger and garlic.
Walnut Shrimp:
This is an interesting dish. It is salty and sweet. I only remember having this on a couple occasions, but it sounded really food for tonight. If you think the steamed tilapia was simple, this may even be easier. Devein and peel some shrimp and toss with tapioca starch and pan fry. To make the sauce, whip up some mayo, condensed milk, honey, soy sauce, and toss in some walnuts. When the shrimp is done, toss in the sauce. Simple!
Pan Seared Scallops:
I thought this would have been just a great addition to the dinner. I had made these a while back and enjoyed it. Make a citrus marinade consisting of orange, lime, olive oil, sesame oil and a dash of fish sauce. I used the zest of the fruits as well. Let this marinade for a couple minutes. Pan sear the scallops on both sides and then toss in the marinade until it reduces.
Bok Choy:
Figured I would throw in the mix some vegetables to make myself feel better. My Mom had some dried shiitake mushrooms that I had rehydrated. Sauteed this with some onion and garlic and tossed in the bok choy until it cooks down. I tossed in some chicken broth and oyster sauce to make a sauce for the stir fry.
The dinner turned out great! Better than I had anticipated. Everything was dead on as far as flavor goes. I have been wanting to do a dinner like this a for a little while so I have had some time kind of play with the recipes in my head. Happy Mother's Day!
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